Your Views

Here we want you to give us your views of the great Billy Liddell and we will publish them at our site. What we are looking for is in tune with these tributes from Liverpool fans at Red and White Kop (RAWK.co.uk) which were on the Net before we published this site.

My old man is a blue nose and he used to alternate between watching Everton one week and Liverpool the next, just to watch Liddell play. As someone who has seen him play many times and has also seen all our greats over the last 50 years he tells me without doubt Liddell is the best player he has ever seen in a red shirt.

Shanks 1965

I saw him play many times. And I met him.
I was there the day we were relegated to the second division. We lost to Cardiff City. We won a penalty which Billy took and it was saved by their substitute goalie, their full back. In those days there were no official substitutes allowed on the bench, so if the goalie was injured one of the original 11 had to take over. Not only was it a very expensive save for us but Billy rarely missed penalties. He must have been one of the most successful penalty takers of all time for LFC and Scotland. And that was when the ball was heavy leather with big stitches weighing a lot more than it does now.
His typical move was on the left wing, where he would make for the bye-line before slinging in a fast cross at just the right height. The all-standing Kop would topple forward when he made for the flagpole and you could hear the shout for a "corner" all ove the city. His corners were also superb as were his free kicks. He would also cut in from the left and let fly with thunderous shots from either foot.
Sometimes he would switch to the right wing and had an extended period there. But one of his most successful spells was when he was converted to centre forward. He held the line, passed and brought in the wingers, was direct down the middle and could also head the ball.
He ran (and walked) with a rolling gait - like a sailor. He could not be knocked off the ball and was rarely injured. That was the age of dribblers. He could beat men consistently but it was not with the kind of dizzy dribbling of Matthews or Finney but a more obvious and deliberate moves with close ball control together with the ability to brush the opponent to one side. When he was in full flight down the wing or down the middle he was very fast and strong.
In his day he was far bigger for LFC than Dalglish in his and incomparably great than Gerrard. I would say he was about the same as Shankly in his time.

Seamus

Sir William Liddell - to bestow upon him a title he more than earned - WAS Liverpool Football Club. He was its spirit. He was also its integrity, its heart and its passion.
To Reds such as my mother and father and others of the pre-Bill Shankly generation he represented a ticket to some sort of footballing respectability. The "Liddellpool" tag the club was awarded was no hype or coincidence. It was fact.
My father would tell me that Billy kept the team going virtually single-handed during that dispiriting eight year Second Division spell we endured in the fifties. Catching the tail end of that era myself I suppose I had my own feel for what he meant, though of course as a young Liverpudlian simply seeing a red shirt on green grass was such a thrill in itself it tended to dilute any disappointment with the team performance.
Nevertheless, with so little of any footballing eminence to which to cling during those dark days, Liverpudlians really did used to bask in the comforting knowledge that in "their Billy" they possessed someone who was as good as any other footballer around. No mean feat when you're talking about Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews just for starters.
Nor was this anything to do with local bias or parochial vision. Billy Liddell was the real McCoy. In fact he was THAT good he was actually selected twice for the Great Britain representative side to play against The Rest of Europe. Just that knowledge alone gave every Red a massive fillip and sufficient justification for holding their heads up high.
For the likes of myself growing up in Liverpool during the fifties - too young to have seen the man at his best - we simply hung onto the tales of our parents and families with a steely determination and open-mouthed wonder. For we, too, were deprived of any other footballing excellence at that time. We, too, were desperate for ANY morsels of greatness. Even at that young age, deep down we knew our lowly place in the footballing echelon and craved to escape from it.
And so we'd revel in hearing how his immense power allied to simple but matchless skills meant he was virtually unstoppable down either left or right wing. How he was just as unstoppable at centre forward too. How hard he could hit that ball with either foot. How he'd had that fantastic goal disallowed against Manchester City because the ref had blown for full time while it was still in flight.
And then THAT photo, the one with the referee circled, would come out of the sideboard drawer just to prove it. For the umpteenth time. Yet possibly above all else what used to resonate was just how much of a gentleman and a true sport Billy Liddell ALWAYS was. Whatever the kicks and provocation. Whatever the circumstances. Always a peerless ambassador for his club, his adopted city and his country. A man to be revered.
I suppose it was the reverence for him that stood out above everything else. The sheer universal respect for this truly unassuming man. Both Red and Blue alike had a mutual awe of Billy Liddell that I have only ever encountered for two other people. One was the incredible William Ralph Dean and the other was Bill Shankly himself. I think that says everything about the man.

Al

Being a resident of Townhill I am being pretty vocal about this btw, Billy Liddell single-handedly saved LIVERPOOL FC from obscurity, if it wasn't for Billy Liddell then LFC wouldn't be where they are today, NO Bill Shankly, NO Sir Bob Paisley, NO 5 European cup wins, NO 18 league titles, this man was our saving grace during the 50's, do me a favour and get this petition signed, this one time Anfield legend deserves a statue in his home town, come on people of RAWK, sign it and lets get this TRUE Anfield legend the honour he deserves.

Haggis

After he retired he live in Cheyne Gardens in Aigburth, round the corner from our house.
Never left this town and gave me dad who's 74 now many happy years back then just chatting when getting the sunday papers. true gent and without doubt the greatest player for us.
I remember being about ten (1978) and me dad asking Billy to talk to me outside gracies newsagents and we stood for a good ten minutes while he talked crap with a little snotty kid.
I really wish the youngsters could have seen him play or talk to blokes like me dad and understand just how great he was and stuck through the club through thick and thin.
Gent and a top bloke.

Bridgy

The man who MADE the kop roar! Only Steven Gerrard and Kenny Dalglish can come close to Billy and none will excite the kop more.

Stan Howard

On Sept 7th, 1946 my father took me to Anfield for the first time. It was a fantastic match which finished LFC 7 Chelsea 4 and Billy scored twice. Over the years he was brilliant and without a doubt the best-ever Liverpool player. He would walk into any team to-day and would be priceless. I saw him briefly in the University car park long after his retirement and just grinned at him. When he looked puzzled ( we had never met) I said "its all right Billy, its just memories". What a man and what a player.

David Bretherton

Billy was my hero, i grew up watching him play, a great player and a true legend but above all a great man.

Vic Gill

A lovely man and fantastic player, hard as nails but always fair, never dirty. A true gentleman who will never be forgotten by Liverpool fans and the many students he helped at the university.

Larrikin from RAWK

Brilliant stuff.
Bill should have a statue at the ground or some sort of monument.
If the new ground ever got built a massive monument saying Liddellpool in massive red letters, free standing in the park would be ace.
One more point, the club should be ashamed that his sister can only go to the league games because she cant afford anymore. The sister of one of our greatest ever players should get free tickets in my opinion.

Walton Red

Its now in my 59th. year I am realising what my dad meant to many people. As a young child there was the journey to town I remember when just about everyone we passed acknowledged him. I always thought he knew loads of people, and didnt really know he was such a footballing icon. In this day with the massive salaries afforded to todays footballers the idea of playing the game for the love of it and the loyalty one might associate to one team is not as apparent as when my Dad played.
The journey man footballer is all too apparent today. which really brings it home to you when you consider my Dad only ever played for Liverpool.
It is superb that his memory still lives on.

Mal Liddell

I used to live round the corner from Billy Liddell when he lived in Roby. My sister and I went to his Sunday School at Court Hey. He used to play tennis at a sports ground across the road from the church. He drove a maroon Hillman Minx BCC 491 and would always wave if I was outside he passed. I am a lifelong supporter of LFC. My dad went to the 1950 final with my red and white scarf. It was hard being a supporter in the fifties. I saw him play many times. My mother even went with me to his testimonial. He moved away soon after that. The last time i saw him was in 1963 at Liverpool University. He was having lunch. He nodded to me and I wish I had gone over to talk to him but I did not like to intrude. There has never been a greater Liverpool player. Its a pity he played so many of his best years when we were such a struggling team. When I coached my sons teams, I made sure they had Billys number 11.
Robert Whitehead
Hamilton, Ontario

Robert Whitehead

Great site and thanks for recording a part of the history of the club. I was too young (just) to see Billy but you've "brought him alive".

Michael Doherty

I am now 63 and in 1964 The wonderful man Billy Liddell took a party of scruffy under 18,s to represent Liverpool Boys Association to Duisburg in Germany to play football and table tennis against Gemany youth teams. I played in the table tennis team and Billy use to practise with us. All i can say he was still a great footballer. He had just retired and was very fit and strong. He was a wonderful father figure to us all and a brillant role model on how to conduct yourself. He offten spoke about his children and how proud he was of them.I still have his autograph on my passport and the memories of a true gentleman, ambssordor and billiant footballer.Tommy Giblin

Tommy Giblin

I am 58 and for most of it I have supported LFC. I live in OZ & remember being sent some Echos and player cards from my uncle bert. I still have them...also my dad emegrated in 1951 and always said Billy Liddell was the best Liverpool player. After reading this and other sites I agree.

John Hogg

King Billy quote

"I used to run messages for my grandmother who lived in the village. I always had a ball with me, a tennis ball or a sponge ball, and when she asked me to go to the grocers I always ran there on the left hand side of the road, pushing the ball against the wall and stopping it before it went into the road. I did that all the way to the grocers which was a quarter or half a mile away from my grandmothers. Then on the way back I would run on the same pavement so that I had to use my other foot to stop the ball going into the road."

Billy Liddell reveals how he came to be so accomplished with both his left and right foot